Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic operation vehicle. The present invention particularly relates to an automatic operation vehicle capable of reducing the labor of a user in setting an operation area in which the automatic operation vehicle performs an operation.
Description of the Related Art
There is conventionally proposed an automatic operation vehicle that is equipped with an operation device such as a mowing blade and actuates the operation device while automatically traveling in a set operation area. The operation area in which the automatic operation vehicle automatically travels is set by, for example, placing a physical barrier such as a wire by a user. For this reason, if the automatic operation vehicle contacts the physical barrier, it changes the direction by, for example, turning not to travel outside the operation area.
To set the operation area by the physical barrier, the user needs to place the physical barrier such as a wire throughout the boundary between the inside and the outside of the operation area to a height to contact the automatic operation vehicle. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0271991 discloses a robot mower (automatic operation vehicle) that need not a physical barrier and can store the position information of the boundary between the inside and the outside of an operation area.
This automatic operation vehicle is provided with a handle grippable by a user. The user can grip the handle and guide the traveling of the automatic operation vehicle. While the user is guiding the traveling of the automatic operation vehicle along the boundary between the inside and the outside of an operation area, the automatic operation vehicle acquires and stores the current position of its own, thereby storing the position of the boundary.
After storing the boundary between the inside and the outside of the operation area, the automatic operation vehicle compares the current position of its own with the position of the boundary between the inside and the outside of the operation area, thereby implementing traveling only in the operation area. Hence, for this automatic operation vehicle, the user need not place a physical barrier such as a wire throughout the boundary between the inside and the outside of the operation area.
However, to set the operation area for the automatic operation vehicle, the user needs to guide the traveling of the automatic operation vehicle along the boundary between the inside and the outside of the operation area. For this reason, the present inventors recognized that there is room for improvement of an existing automatic operation vehicle to reduce the labor of a user in setting an operation area.